Housewarming
by Icognito DeMimsy
Summary: Modern AU. Enjolras and Eponine have just rented their first apartment together.


"It's outrageous! Those fucking assholes think they can just plaster whatever kind of propaganda crap onto the screen and the gullible public with just shove it down their maws without a single thought!"

Eponine looked up from her seat on the couch. "Do you want me to turn it off?"

Enjolras didn't seem to hear her. "I mean, look at the subjugation going on here! And they're thanking them for it!"

Courfeyrac sighed. "Enjolras, it's freaking _Wizard of Oz."_

The others chuckled softly. Enjolras huffed. "I thought we were going to actually discuss something tonight."

Courfeyrac smiled patronizingly. "And we will, I promise. After the wicked witch dies."

Enjolras turned to Eponine, Cosette, and Combeferre. "Doesn't it bother you that the only strong female character is portrayed as wicked and sinful?"

Combeferre chewed her popcorn perplexedly. "No," she said.

"What about Glinda and Dorothy?" Eponine said. "They're strong female characters."

"They're insipid twits."

Eponine whistled softly. "And I thought I had an unhappy childhood."

Enjolras sighed and sat down on the couch next to Eponine with an air of surrender. She snuggled in close to him and closed her eyes. A strange buzzing made her open them again.

Enjolras was softly humming along with the munchkins. Eponine stifled a giggle at the ridiculousness.

"What?" he said, looking down at her.

"No wonder they all thought you were gay," she said, barely containing her smile. Enjolras raised his brows.

"No, no," Courfeyrac interjected. "We didn't think he was gay. We thought he was going to die a virgin."

Enjolras glanced around the room, making sure everyone was watching, then kissed Eponine passionately. She responded eagerly, the two breaking apart after very long seconds panting slightly.

"What do y'all think now?" he asked, his eyebrows raised in satisfaction this time.

"Mmm," Eponine said devilishly. "No, I'm still convinced you're going to die a gay virgin. I think you need to work on persuading me more."

Enjolras smiled down at her, looking more than willing, but Combeferre's arm smacked across the back of his head before he could. "Mim eafing," she complained around her popcorn. Enjolras rubbed the back of his head.

"Ouch, Ferre," he said in a very put upon tone of voice. She shrugged and looked back at the TV. Eponine reached across Enjolras to grab the popcorn from her lap.

"Hey," she snapped. Eponine compromised by placing the bowl in Enjolras's lap.

The doorbell rang. Eponine looked up. "Fey, can you-" but Courfeyrac was already up and running to the door. Eponine glanced around the little flat and felt a burst of happiness so extreme she felt like shrieking like a preteen. She and Enjolras had just signed the rent papers this morning. This was their congratulatory party, which of course Enjolras had interpreted as _let's-plan-our-next-act-of-civil-disobedience_ time. The others had all ignored him and determined that it was movie watching time. Bahorel and Feuilly's suggestion of _The Hangover_ had been shot down in favor of the more Gavroche-appropriate _Wizard of Oz_. She looked over at her little brother, fast asleep nestled between Bousset and Joly. He spent most nights with Enjolras and Eponine, one of the main reasons for getting this apartment. It had a grand total of three bedrooms, plus two large closets where one could conceivably place a cot or two. True, it also had only one functional bathroom and the stove was barely more than an easy bake oven, but still. There was plenty of room for all the Amis, and that was all that she and Enjolras needed.

She still marveled at it, the thought of Enjolras and her being together. If someone had told her two years ago that she would be dating or even living with the man beside her she would have wrangled them into a straightjacket. Of course, two years ago she was still in college, and Enjolras was just that handsome rebel guy who gets arrested a lot, and she was that girl still hopelessly in love with Marius. But a lot had changed since then. They had both graduated and started work. Enjolras had gone two months without getting arrested, which was a new record for him. Marius had met Cosette. And Eponine had completely fallen for the obliviously rebellious Enjolras, who somehow had discovered he felt the same way about her.

Which wasn't to say it was easy. Enjolras was the most intelligent person she knew, but he could be dumb as a brick when it came to anything involving her emotions. She remembered picking up the phone once to find him on the other line on his one call from prison. Terrified memories of her parents' many stints in jail racing through her brain, she had quickly scrounged up all the cash she could.

_"Crap! Okay, I'll be there in a sec. Hold on."_

_ "What? Why?"_

_ "To bail you out."_

_ "No, I'm here on purpose. Fey and Ferre too. I was only calling to let you know I wouldn't be home for dinner." _

And the line went dead. She'd played nothing but pop music and stolen his leather jacket for the next week in retaliation, only consenting to give it back because she missed seeing him in it.

She could also remember the first time he'd kissed her, in a drunken haze on their way home from a bar, rain pouring down as they ducked into a doorway and he pulled his jacket up as a tarp over them.

The next day, embarrassed and abashed, they had ran into each other outside class. _"Listen,"_ he said, his face earnest and sad. _"Last night- it doesn't have to mean anything."_

Eponine had simply stared at him, her heart sinking. _"Right,"_ she'd replied dejectedly. _"Of course not._"

_"I mean- I know, you and Marius- It's just- I understand."_

_ "Marius?"_

_ "It's okay. You have this mega-torch you're carrying for him. I get it."_

_ "Wait," _she'd said, confused. She'd figured it was more of the differences of their upbringings, poor-girl and rich-boy. _"You don't want to go out with me because you think I still like Marius?"_

_ "No," _he'd said, looking equally perplexed. _"You don't want to go out with me because you do still like Marius. Right?"_

_ "No!" _she'd cried. _"Marius and I- that was never a thing, Enjolras."_

Enjolras shook his head. _"No, it definitely was. Wasn't it?"_

She'd laughed and stomped her foot. _"Oh, for god's sakes, will you just ask me out already?"_

It had taken her three months to convince Enjolras that she no longer felt anything but friendly affection for Marius, three months and Marius and Cosette's surprise engagement.

_"Eponine,_" he'd said, looking as solemn as if someone had died. _"I'm so sorry I have to tell you this." _

She'd stared at him in terror and confusion, thinking something terrible had happened to Gavroche or Azelma. _"Marius is engaged," _he'd said, biting his lip.

She'd burst out laughing. _"That's it? Jesus christ, you have a serious PR problem," _she said, then squealed. _"Oh my god, I have to call Cosette!"_

Although, truthfully, Eponine and Cosette's friendship had taken everyone a little getting used to, particularly Eponine and Cosette themselves. She hadn't taken the revelation that Marius had fallen in love with her old foster-sister very well, getting herself and Marius arrested along with the rest of the amis during the student protest three years ago. But soon after seeing Cosette again, she had quickly realized that Marius was completely right in adoring her. And besides, as she had told Enjolras when explaining why their engagement hadn't sent her running off the nearest bridge, _"You're way hotter __than he is, so I win." _The two even worked together now at the same clinic. Eponine was a therapist working with intercity kids and Cosette helped run the battered women's shelter.

Fey reentered the room, drawing Eponine out of her reverie. Marius and Grantaire followed him into the room. Grantaire immediately headed for the fridge, while Marius made a beeline for Cosette.

"Ugh," he moaned, kicking off his shoes as he kissed his fiance. "I'm exhausted." He collapsed on the couch. Ferre squealed and rolled out of his way, knocking the popcorn all over Enjolras's lap.

Enjolras heaved a long suffering sigh and began to scoop the popcorn back into the bowl. Eponine stood to help him.

From the kitchen she heard the door slam and Grantaire stuck his head out the door. "Where's your beer?" he asked, looking genuinely perplexed at its absence.

She looked back at him, her hands on her hips. "R, I spend all day around druggie teenagers who steal beer from their parent's fridge and shoot up heroin with their silverware. Do you really think I'm going to be stupid enough to leave that stuff around where my kid brother can find it?"

Grantaire looked unimpressed. "I notice you still have all your spoons."

Eponine sighed and looked over at Enjolras. He looked back at her, his gaze completely level.

"Top right cabinet," she said without looking at Grantaire. "There's a bottle of champagne to share. _To share, _Grantaire," she said as he returned with the open bottle in his hands and no glasses.

He went back into the kitchen. "All you have is paper cups," he complained.

"We're a social worker and a professional rabble rouser. Were you expecting crystal champagne flutes?"

Enjolras looked up from the popcorn. "I am not a rabble rouser," he said somewhat indignantly.

Cosette laughed. "Weren't you the one just trying to convince us that the Wizard of Oz was 'propaganda crap'?"

Enjolras sniffed haughtily. "It is. See, this is the fundamental issue with society is these days. We elevate these things to these pedestals and we say 'don't touch this, it's perfect' and then we refuse to accept that times have changed and Courfeyrac I can fucking see you. Cut that out."

Courfeyrac had been standing behind him the entire time, lip-syncing with many a Shakespearean gesture. They laughed. Courfeyrac dropped his arms. "It's not like you don't deserve it," he muttered. Eponine grabbed the cups from Grantaire, then thought again and took the champagne instead, handing him the cups.

They had turned off the movie by now. Enjolras gently lifted Gavroche from his nest between Joly and Bousset. The child stirred but did not wake. He was already nine years old, but he still looked seven, particularly asleep in Enjolras's arms. Eponine watched them go. _How did you get this lucky?_ she thought to herself as she poured the champagne. First the scholarship to NYU, then meeting Marius and, through him, the rest of the Amis, graduating, her job as a social worker, Enjolras. How had she ever gotten this lucky?

Enjolras returned to the living room and sat down beside her, taking the cup of champagne Marius passed him. Combeferre raised her glass.

"To Eponine and Enjolras," she said. The others all echoed her toast and drank.

"I'm pretty sure you gave me less than everyone else," Grantaire said, looking down at his glass.

Eponine snuggled into Enjolras's warm body. "There's a protest going on in the park tomorrow," he whispered in her ear. "Wanna go?"

"That depends," she said. "Are we going to get arrested?"

Enjolras shrugged. "It's always possible."

She looked up at him. "You know, a criminal record doesn't help you get hired."

"I don't have a- I don't have much of a criminal record."

She laughed, playing with the long fingers of his big hand.

"I love you," he whispered into the back of her head.

She smiled, the words still sending that little thrill throughout her entire being. "And I you."


End file.
